It's been a different sprint today and a difficult sprint indeed but thanks to my team I managed to go back up and win one more stage. I'm now the Colombian with most stage victories at the Giro but it doesn't mean much. To me it means that I came to the Giro well prepared.
The curve was very complicated because you could take it from the outside, like [Max] Richeze and [Davide] Martinelli, but I tried to take it from the inside. But Sacha Modolo anticipated me so I was a bit boxed in. I managed to find a bit of space, and when I decided to come past Max and I made sure he saw me so that he wouldn't close the door. He did a great job, a stupendous job, and we achieved a win for the team and for Colombia.
I was lucky today. I was lucky to have the space. I'm lucky to have the legs and loyal teammates. Perhaps there are stronger riders but I had the luck.
I think we're still looking for one thing – we're looking to win this maglia ciclamino. That is our objective. I don't know what to expect from the week to come, it's going to be a difficult week, but I think we'll take it with motivation because we're taking four wins home already and we worked hard for this jersey.
It was a tense sprint, there was lots of crosswind and headwind, and that made the lead out tricky. With 300 metres to go I made contact, like in all the sprints here, with [Rudi] Selig of Bora. I don’t know if he has a problem with me, but it seems that every time he sees me come past he throws himself at me. So there was contact there but I left a metre so Gaviria could come through. Then I got tangled up with Caleb, but that was just something that happens in sprints.
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The riders in the GC were up there in the final, making sure they were out of trouble, so it was complicated for us to do our work, and complicated too because of the wind. Fernando is a very intelligent sprinter, he waited to come through, and he won with authority.
The wind made me nervous sometimes. For most of the day it was side wind. In the finale it was more side head wind. But I was very well protected by the team so it was another good day for us. I think Oropa is a climb that suits me well so I hope to be in the Maglia Rosa again on Sunday.
